STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday June 10, 7:28 PM Tense stand-off on edge of Macedonian capital, Albanians flee SINGJELIC, Macedonia, June 10 (AFP) - Ethnic Albanian rebels blockaded the road leading into a small town on the very edge of Skopje Sunday, facing off squads of Macedonian special police just a few kilometres from the capital. As tension mounted around the city, hundreds of ethnic Albanian refugees streamed across the border into the UN-run Yugoslav province of Kosovo, retracing the steps of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians fleeing Serb forces two years ago. The self-proclaimed National Liberation Army's blockade was erected overnight on the edge of the mainly Albanian town of Aracinovo, less than two kilometres (one mile) from a security forces checkpoint manned by special police in body armour, helmets and armed with assault rifles. Locals said the night was calm and there was no military activity visible from the neighbouring village of Singuljevic early Sunday, although a police armoured car was spotted patrolling tracks on the edge of Aracinovo. Armed NLA rebels entered the town late Friday, saying they were there to "defend the people" after several mortar shells they said were fired by security forces landed near Aracinovo. Defence Minister Ljube Boskovski said Saturday there were up to 800 guerrillas in the village, which he said was surrounded by security forces. At a police checkpoint in Singuljevic, a crowd of around 40 angry Macedonian Slavs, some of them from Aracinovo and carrying binoculars, scanned the village and threatened Western journalists. "Bastards, go and tell Solana about this," shouted one man, referring to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has urged the government to open political talks while pursuing a restrained military response that has barely contained the insurgency. The rebels said their men had been joined by more than 160 armed villagers. Their leader in the town, Commander Hoxha, said they were capable of moving into Skopje but said his men would stay put until the government allowed them to join talks on the crisis. Macedonia's Slav-led government has so far refused to talk to the NLA, calling them "terrorists," and instead addressing the grievances of the large ethnic Albanian through political leaders while battling the gunmen on the ground. Both the rebels and politicians alike want equal rights for the Albanian majority and recognition of Albanian as their official language. And at the crossing point of Blace on the Macedonian-Kosovo border, hundreds of refugees carrying heavy bags and arriving in taxis or relatives' cars walked across the frontier, fearing the fighting was about to engulf their homes. Many came from Aracinovo and Singjelic, although there were also families from Skopje and villages south of the capital. The UN refugee agency said Saturday around 7,000 people had crossed into Kosovo from Macedonia in just two days, and the flow showed little sign of slowing up. National television said clashes continued near Slupcane, in the hills some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Skopje, one of a string of villages held by the NLA for more than a month, despite constant artillery and tank bombardment. Some 12,000 civilians are holed up in the villages, while the rebels control two reservoirs above nearby Kumanovo, leaving the city of 100,000 without running water for five days. Neighbouring Bulgaria has offered to supply water to the city, where health officials fear contagious diseases could break out if the taps are not turned on soon. Solana announced during a brief visit Saturday that all the Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties in the strained coalition had backed a peace plan forwarded by President Boris Trajkovski. The plan allows for an amnesty for rebels of Macedonian nationality, but said their leaders -- who Skopje says are Kosovo Albanians trying to annex parts of northern Macedonia -- will be "eliminated." It would also allow for a ceasefire and gradual demilitarisation of combat zones with international backing. NATO, which commands around 40,000 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, has offered to help disarm the rebels following success in defusing a similar Albanian insurrection in a region of southern Serbia bordering both Kosovo and Macedonia. But one ethnic Albanian coalition leader, Arben Xhaferi, said the plan was too vague as it stands. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
